in with and captured by the French 74-gun ship Généreux, after an action highly honourable to the British 50-gun ship, and the full details of which will appear under the next head of the work.

The ships of the British squadron at anchor in Aboukir bay now set about repairing their damages, with all possible speed. Every exertion was also used to place the captured ships in a state to undertake the voyage to England with safety. The prisoners taken in them were sent on shore in a cartel, upon the usual terms ; but Buonaparte, to show how he respected treaties, formed the men, soon after they landed, into a battalion, which he named the nautic legion, and gave the command of it to the late second captain of the Franklin, Jules-Francois Martinencq. On the 8th the island of Aboukir was taken possession of, and the two mortars, with the two brass 12-pounders, were brought off. The remainder of the guns, with the carriages of the whole, and the platform on which they had been mounted, were destroyed. The island was also newly, and far from inappropriately named, Nelson's island.

On the 10th Sir Horatio, aware of the designs of the French, in case of succeeding at Egypt, to attack the British East India possessions, despatched, over land to Bombay, with the intelligence of the victory, Lieutenant Thomas Duval, of the Zealous, an officer selected by Captain Hood.* On the 12th, in the evening, the British 36-gun frigate Emerald, Captain Thomas Moutray Waller, and 32-gun frigate Alcmène, Captain George Hope, with the Bonne-Citoyenne sloop of war, hove in sight in the offing ; but, on being chased by the Swiftsure, stood off. On the next day, however, the frigates got over their alarm, and joined the squadron. On the 13th the 16-gun brig-sloop Mutine, Captain the Honourable Thomas Bladen Capel, who had succeeded Captain Hardy, on the latter's promotion to the Vanguard, and was now the bearer of the rear-admiral's duplicate despatches, sailed for Naples.

On the morning of the 14th, after an incredible deal of labour in refitting the ships, the Orion, Bellerophon, Minotaur, Defence, Audacious, Theseus, and Majestic, accompanied by the Franklin, Tonnant, Aquilon, Conquérant, Peuple-Souverain (the two latter scarcely in a seaworthy state), and Spartiate, under the orders of Captain Sir James Saumarez, got under way and stood out of the road. The prizes, being rigged with jury-masts and very weakly manned, could hardly work out of the bay. At length they reached the mouth of it ; and, after lying at single anchor for the night, again weighed, and proceeded on their voyage. On the 16th the Heureux, and on the 18th the Mercure and Guerrier, being all, particularly the last, in too bad a state to be refitted, were burnt, as they lay, the first two aground

* For a brief account of this officer's journey, see Appendix, No. 14.

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